COGIC

Do the right thing

Written by Steve Jamison

The real question is, why are we so easily intimidated by the office of Presiding Bishop? Why are we willing to be controlled and manipulated by someone who works for us? Instead of him being our willing servant, we are his unwilling slaves. We treat the office as deity, acting as if somehow it makes its occupant infallible. Causing almost every presiding Bishop in my lifetime to take on warlock like qualities. Whenever men are ruled by fear and intimidation it is the same as witchcraft. How did this happen, where did we go wrong, and what do we need to do to correct this calamity?

I believe the problem can be traced back to the death of Bishop Mason. Bishop Mason was a powerful man of God, one who caused the church to focus on Jesus. By doing so he kept the church Christ centered, causing the spirit of the Lord to have the preeminence in our activities both business and spiritual. He was not a self-centered leader but was a builder of other men. Under his selfless leadership the church grew, covering the entire nation and the world in a short while. Upon his death certain unprepared men were thrust into leadership. Not knowing what to do they proceeded to make a comedy of errors. The major error being, placing the dead body of Bishop Mason in our place of worship. They unwittingly opened a spiritual door that would lead us in to decades of Idolatry and man worship. They knew Bishop Mason could hear from God, they knew he was an anointed leader. And some how they transferred the spiritual qualities he personally possessed to the position of presiding Bishop, assuming anyone in that position would possess the same spiritual qualities. Therefore, the office of Presiding Bishop has become synonymous with the Voice of God. However, although these men were given the position of presiding Bishop, they lacked the spiritual capacity to assume the authority, which led to abuse of powers and tyrannical leadership. This begin the era in the church where we began placing more emphasis on positions then piety. In fact, having and getting positions has become the major ambition of the saints. We began to strive for them and fight over them. We love the seats on the platform high above everyone else. We crated a class system around positions. Your value in the church is determined by the position you hold or your parent held. There are different rules and rights afforded to you as you rise in class. Although we are admonished in scripture to honor leadership, we have turned leadership into a privileged class, causing animosity where fellowship should abide.

This is no one’s fault in particular, but simply reflects the nature of fallen man. Man will find something to worship other than God, in this case it is the dead body of our sainted founder. When Moses died, God had to hide his body from the Israelite’s to prevent them from building a monument to him and forgetting the real goal of possessing the promised land. This can also be seen at the Mount of Transfiguration, when Peter made the fatal mistake of placing Moses and Elijah on the same level with Jesus. The Scripture says they fell as dead men. I believe God killed them to show His disdain for what Peter was intimating. Jesus brought them back to life. At which point God said to them this is my beloved son hear ye him. It is always a death sentence spiritually when we place mortal men equal to or above Jesus. I have noticed, in many of our contemporary COGIC churches we will make more noise and commotion over the pastor then for Jesus.

God did not want what he had done through Moses to over shadow what he wanted to do through Jesus. Neither does He want what he has done through Bishop Mason to over shadow what He intends to do through Jesus and the collective on going spiritual leadership of the Church of God in Christ. Therefore he had to take Moses body out of their site and reach. When Sarah died Abraham sought for a place to bury her, saying specifically that I might bury my dead out of my sight, insinuating the dead does not belong among the living. This does not mean we forget or disrespect what our forefathers did, instead we should seek God for the ability to hear His voice for our generation, as they did for theirs, building on the foundation delivered to us. Therefore we are experiencing the culmination of the bad decisions of those good but misled men who did not hear the voice of God. Let us correct this problem, by taking the dead body of our sainted founder out of our place of worship, out of our place of life, and build a suitable resting place for Bishop Mason. One befitting his contribution and labor to the church and the world, and let us return to being the spirit led church God intended us to be.